U.S. planes moving French troops, equipment to Mali

SEGOU, Mali - American planes have transported French troops and equipment to Mali, a U.S. military spokesman said yesterday, as Malian and French forces pushed into the Islamist-held north.

SEGOU, Mali — American planes have transported French troops and equipment to Mali, a U.S. military spokesman said yesterday, as Malian and French forces pushed into the Islamist-held north.

The town of Douentza had been held by Islamist rebels for four months. It’s 120 miles northeast of Mopti, the previous line-of-control held by the Malian military in Mali’s narrow central belt.

The Islamist fighters have controlled the vast desert stretches of northern Mali, while the weak government has hung on to the south, since a military coup in the capital in March.

French and Malian troops arrived in Douentza on Monday to find that the Islamists had retreated, said a resident, Sali Maiga. “The Malian military and the French army spent their first night, and the people are very happy,” Maiga said yesterday.

French and Malian forces also took the town of Diabaly, 120 miles west of Mopti, on Monday after Islamist fighters who had seized it a week earlier fled amid French airstrikes.

The presence of Malian soldiers in the two towns marks tangible accomplishments for the French-led mission, which began onJan. 11 after the rebels pushed south and threatened the capital, Bamako. However, there are doubts that the Malian army will be able to hold recovered territory without foreign support.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Air Force has made five C-17 flights into Bamako, delivering more than 80 French troops and 124 tons of equipment in an continuing operation, Pentagon press secretary George Little said yesterday. He said the United States is considering a French request for U.S. aerial-refueling support.

The U.S. C-17 transport planes began flights from a French base in Istres, France.

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